old English noun Grammatical Categories Declensions The

old English noun Grammatical Categories Declensions

The Noun Grammatical Categories n The OE noun had two numbers, singular and plural; three genders: masculine (M), feminine (F) and neuter (N); and four cases: nominative, genitive, dative and accusative.

Declensions n n The OE system of declensions was based on a number of distinctions: the stem-suffix, the gender of nouns, the phonetic structure of the word, phonetic changes in the final syllables. Cf. (compare): To define the type of declension of a Russian noun we are to know its gender and its ending. (К первому склонению относятся существительные женского и мужского рода с окончанием - а, -я).

In ancient times nouns were classified according to their meaning. Nouns denoting objects of the same kind formed a special group with their own stem forming suffix. But later the principle of the original classification was lost.

Stem-forming Suffix The stem forming suffix in OE had ceased to be a distinct component part of the noun. Though the types of nouns as a stems, ō stems, n stems, etc. were distinguished, there was little in the OE forms themselves to show any traces of these stems. ,

Traces of stem-forming suffixes in OE The stem forming suffix had merged together either with the root or with the ending, or had become an inflection itself. As a grammatical ending it had survived only in a few types of declension: n stems had many forms ending in –an, u stems had the inflection u in some cases [Rastorgueva, 2001].

Vocalic Declensions Vocalic stems are . a stems, ja , wa stems (MN); ō -stems, jō , wō stems (F); i stems (MNF); u stems (MF).

Typical paradigms of the strong masculine (a ) declension Nom. Gen. Dat. Singular Acc. stān dæg stānes dæges stāne dæg Plural Acc. stānas dægas stāna dæga stānum dægum fisceres fiscere fisceras fiscera fiscerum

Productive declension About one third of OE nouns were Masculine a stem. More and more nouns which originally belonged to other stems or were borrowed from other languages joined this declension. The inflections of the Dative plural – um and Genitive plural –a were alike in all declensions.

masculine (a-) declension n It was characteristic of OE nouns to have homonymous forms for the Nominative and Accusative plural. The Mod E plural marker (e)s goes back to the OE –as in the Nominative and Accusative plural forms of Masculine a-stems. This inflection began to be added to the other Masculine stems towards the end of the OE period. The OE Genetive singular ending –es of a stems was a prototype of the Mod E Possessive Case marker ’s. In OE it began to spread to other Masculine and Neuter stems, but its use was limited to the singular nouns [Smirnitsky, 1998].

Typical paradigms of the strong neuter (a-) declension Nom. Gen. Dat. Singular Acc. scip word scipes wordes scipe worde Plural Acc. scipu word scipa worda scipum wordum rīces rīce rīcu rīca rīcum

Notes: 1. Neuter a-stems differed from the masculine astems in the plural of the Nom. and Acc. cases. Instead of -as they usually took –u for short stems, i. e. nouns with a short root syllable, and did not add any inflection in the long stemmed variant. 2. The homonymy of long stemmed Neuters in the singular and plural resulted in identical singular and plural forms of some Mod E nouns: sheep (OE sceāp), deer (OE deōr), swine (OE swīn). Many of these words are the names of animals.

ja-stems and wa-stems pure a stems in some. forms, as differed from their endings contained traces of the elements –j- and –w-. Nom. Gen. Dat. Singular Acc. ende (M) (wīte (N) endes wītes ende wīte Plural Acc. endas wīt(i)u enda wīt(e)a endum wīt(i)um cneo(w) cneowes cneowe cneo(w) cneowa cneowum

Typical paradigms of the strong feminine (ō-) declension Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. talu tale Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. tala, e tala talum tala, e Singular lāre Plural lāra, e lāra lārum lāra, e sāwol sāwle sāwola, e sāwla sāwlum sāwola, e

Notes: 1. Talu is a noun with a short root vowel; lār is a noun with a long vowel. 2. In sāwol the unstressed vowel is omitted in the oblique cases. ō-stems were all feminine. Practically no word of this type ends in ō, which was lost or transformed. The paradigm of ōstems contains many homonymous forms.

jō- stems and wō-stems: are declined like pure ō-stems except that –w - appeared in some endings. Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. ecge Nom. ecga Gen. ecga Dat. ecgum Acc. ecga Singular sceadu sceadwe Plural sceadwa sceadwum sceadwa

i-stem, u-stem Singular n Nom. mete (i , M) n Gen. metes n Dat. mete n Acc. mete n n Nom. meta, as n Gen. meta n Dat. metum n Acc. meta sunu (u , M) suna sunu fēlda Plural suna sunum suna fēlda fēldum fēlda

Notes: 1. Division into genders break up i-stems into 3 declensions, but is irrelevant for u stems: masc. and fem. , u stems decline alike. 2. The length of the root-syllable is important for both stems: mete (i , shortstemmed), sunu (u , short-stemmed), fēld (u , long-stemmed).

The weak or n-declension includes: 1) masculine nouns ending in Nom. sg. in -a, e. g. nama (Mod. E name), guma (man), hunta (hunter), tima (time), wita (councillor), etc. 2) all feminine nouns ending in -e, e. g. hlǣfdige (lady), tunge (tongue), sunne (sun), etc. 3)two neuter nouns ending in -e: ēāge (eye) and ēāге (ear).

n-declension Singular Nom. hunta (Masc. ) tunge (Fem. ) Gen. huntan tungan Dat. huntan tungan Acc. huntan tungan Plural Nom. huntan tungan Gen. huntena tungena Dat. huntum tungum Acc. huntan tungan ēāre (Neut. ) ēāran ēārena ēārum ēāran

The most numerous group of consonantal stems n-stems were the most numerous group of consonantal stems. They had only two distinct forms in the singular: one form for the Nom. case and the other for oblique cases. In fact, n stems had begun to lose their declensional system. Masculine n stems often denoted a doer of the action (nomina agentis), e. g. hunta (a hunter), dēma (a judge), bylda (a builder), cræfta (craftsman), etc [Smirnitsky, 1998].

The only relics of n stems in Mod E are oxen (OE oxan), brethren and children, although the latter was an original s stem and only later converted to the n stem paradigm. The n stem inflection was added to the OE word cildru (s stem), when the former plural marker failed to distinguish the plural form. n stems correspond to the Russian nouns семя, время, знамя, племя, etc [Ylysh, 1973].

(r-) declension -r – declension included a small number of masculine and feminine nouns denoting kinship. Instability was characteristic of this declension [Smirnitsky, 1998]. Every word of this group had some peculiarities in its paradigm. Some nouns had a mutated vowel in the Dative singular (brēþer, dehter), others dropped the second vowel in some forms (brōprum, mōdra) or employed some endings of other stems (fæderas Nom. , Acc. pl. Cf. –as in a stems) [Rastorgueva, 2001]. r stems correspond to the Russian nouns мать, дочь [Ylysh, 1973]. The original suffix –r can be found in the forms of oblique cases: матери, дочери, etc.

R-stem Paradigm Singular Nom. bгōþоr fæder mōdor dohtor Gen. brōþor fæder, es mōdor dohtor Dat. brēþer fæder mēder dehter Acc. brōþor fæder mōdor dohtor Plural Nom. brōpor fæderas mōdra , u dohtor, tra Gen. brōpra fædera mōdra dohtra Dat. brōprum fæderum mōdrum dohtrum Acc. brōpor fæderas mōdra , u dohtor, tra

(s-) declension To this declension there belonged neuter nouns denoting young beings, baby animals: cild (child), cealf (calf), lamb (lamb), eʒ (egg), etc [Ivanova, 2001]. The stem-suffix –s was transformed into –r by Verner’s Law (rhotacism). es sterms correspond to the Russian nouns небо – небеса; чудо – чудеса. [Ylysh, 1973].

S-stem Paradigm Nom. Gen. Dat. Acc. cildes cilde cild Singular Plural Nom. cild, cildru Gen. cilda, cildra Dat. cildum, cildrum Acc. cild, cildru lambes lambe lambru lambra lambrum lambru

(nd-) declension Masculine stems in -nd- are old active (present) participles; some of these show i umlaut in Dat. sg. and Nom. /Acc. pl. Typical examples are frēond (Mod. E. friend), hettend (enemy), hǣlend (saviour), wealdend (ruler), āgend (owner), etc. The (nd) declension combines the peculiarities of the declension of a stems and, to some extent, r stems as they all denote persons.

Paradigm Singular Nom. , Acc. frēond hettend Gen. frēondes hettendes Dat. frēond, frēonde hettend, hettende Plural Nom. , Acc. frēond hettend, e; as Gen. frēonda hettendra Dat. frēondum hettendrum

Root Consonant Stems From the historical point of view this declension was made up of monosyllabic consonant stems, i. e. nouns in which the old case endings were added directly to the final consonant of the root. Typical examples are man(n), fōt, tōþ, hnutu (nut), āc (oak), gōs (goose), mūs (mouse), burg (fortress, town), cū (cow), niht (night), ēа (water, river), lūs (louse), bōc (book), etc. The paradigms for these nouns are affected by i-mutation [Mitchell, 2007].

Root Consonant Stems

Paradigm Singular Masculine Feminine Nom. , Acc. mann fōt bōc mūs Gen. mannes fōtes bēc, bōca mӯs, mūse Dat. menn fēt bēc mӯs Plural Nom. , Acc. menn fēt bēc mӯs Gen. manna fōta bōca mūsa Dat. mannum fōtum bōcum mūsum Note: The masculines have adopted the a stem form of Gen. , sg. ; the feminines most often have an ō stem Gen. in e (bec/bōce).